Last month, a new Egyptian Constitution was approved in a popular referendum held on January 14-15. The Head of the Supreme National Electoral Commission, Chief Justice Nabil Saleeb, announced the results of the referendum on January 18 and stated that the voter turnout was 38.6% of the 53 million people eligible to vote. Of those who voted, 98% voted in favor of the new Constitution. The Constitution came into effect on that same day after it was signed by the current interim president, Adly Monsour, and published in the official gazette. It replaces the 2012 Constitution issued under the administration of former President Mohammed Morsi. . . .

Friday is the deadline for corporate suppliers of the world’s biggest consumer—the U.S. government—to have a say in new regulations aimed at ending indentured servitude overseas. . . . The President’s dictate is unequivocal on one key point: If a company wants to keep the government as a customer, it must stop hiring overseas workers who had to buy their jobs.

You read that right: Workers actually buy jobs. As Bloomberg Businessweek reported in November, foreign workers recruited from some of Asia’s poorest corners often go deep into debt to pay brokers for a crack at jobs on consumer-electronics assembly lines. These factories are in Malaysia and other countries that rely almost exclusively on migrant labor for production. For years Apple has ordered its suppliers to keep such fees below one-months’ net pay at a factory, but its audits last year turned up $6.4 million in overcharges.